The instant I saw this recipe over at A Cozy Kitchen, I knew I was going to have to make it. The next time I was at the grocery store, I grabbed the ingredients that I didn’t already have on hand (avocados and a lemon), and made it the very next day. I love avocados so very, very much, and I knew that since this included chickpeas, it was pretty much health food.

The ingredients:

A can of garbanzo beans, lemon, tahini (which has literally been sitting, unopened, in my pantry for like two years now. There’s no date on the can, so I’m assuming it doesn’t go bad), garlic, 2 avocados, salt, olive oil, paprika.

First, I had to zest and juice the lemon. I used this little zester thing I got for free from some site or another (they were having one of those “grab bag” deals where you buy a bag of crap for like $5, and you never know what you’re going to get). I like that it has the thing attached so that the zest doesn’t go everywhere. To juice it, I used my lemon juicer thingy. I could have squeezed it by hand, but I am a delicate flower and don’t have a Shirley to do my bidding (hee), so I use the juicer.

Tahini’s all “Bitch, hurry UP.”

Yeah, right. Note that the zest didn’t go all over the place. Riiiight. I’m such a slob.

Throw everything but the avocados and salt in a food processor, and give it a whirl ’til it’s smooth. Add salt to taste – and let me tell you here that while you might be tempted to leave the salt out in a misguided attempt to keep your blood pressure low (or whatever health benefit it is that skipping salt gives you; I’m murky on the details, because my doctor’s never told me to watch my salt intake, so I don’t. SO THERE.), if you leave out the salt you’re going to end up with something bland. Add the salt to bring out the flavor, is what you want to do, but don’t go heavy on it.

Does everyone know how to peel an avocado? I’m going to assume not everyone does, because I am late to the love of avocado, and I had a hell of a time the first few times I did it, and I made a big mess and so I’m here to help you out. Because it is so simple and there’s no reason you should be standing in your kitchen swearing at a poor, innocent avocado. Avocados are delicate, and profanities hurt their feelings.

Step one, cut through the avocado skin and flesh until you hit resistance (that would be the pit, in the center). Then cut all the way around.

You can’t see it in this picture, but there’s a cut all the way around the circumference of the avocado.

You might need to twist it a little, but the avocado should come apart easily.

Now here’s how I do it, but this is the wrong way, because if you’re a klutz the tip of the knife will slip and you’ll end up stabbing yourself in the guts, and you KNOW your stupid face is going to be all over those Morons in the News stories. “Alabama housewife eviscerates herself while trying to peel an avocado! She was swarmed by cranky cats. When the cats were done, there was nothing left but an eyeball and her left foot!”

(Completely and totally off topic, you know that movie My Left Foot? I SWEAR to you that Fred thought for many years that it was called My Two Left Feet. He argued HEATEDLY with me that I had the title wrong. That still makes me laugh every single time I think about it.)

ANYway, this is how I do it, I stab the pit with the tip of my knife. What YOU should do is point the knife away from your midsection and smack the sharp edge of the knife down on the pit so that it sticks in the pit.

Then kind of twist the knife away from the avocado, bringing the pit with it.

Then you can pull the pit off with your hand, or you can just clunk the knife on the edge of the trash can, causing the pit to fly off.

The skin pulls off really easily.

And that is how you end up with two naked avocado halves.

Which you then toss into the food processor, and give it another whirl ’til it’s smooth. Add some salt to taste. I didn’t take any pictures of this part of the preparation, because I’m a slacker. Or I was too busy patting myself on the back for not stabbing myself in the stomach. THIS time.

Transfer the hummus to a bowl, drizzle a bit of olive oil on top, and sprinkle with paprika. Serve with whatever you prefer – we ate ours with pita chips, but I think tortilla chips would have been even better.

YUM.